International Football
Champion League Chase, Keeps Olarenwaju from Corsica Match
BY WALE AJAYI
The UEFA champions’ league spot chasing Austria Wien is responsible for the recent substitution of Kayode Olarenwaju in the list of players called up by Nigeria for the friendly matches with Corsica and Togo.
The top scoring Olarenwaju in the Austrian league has only been capped once by Nigeria and will be missing what could have been his second Grade A cap when Nigeria face Togo early in June.
Sports Village Square gathered that the player who is also gunning for the top scorer’s award in the Austrian Bundesliga was excused from the proposed friendly games to enable him spearhead the attack line of his club, FK Austria Wien in the final league games of the season.
In his place, the Super Eagles’ technical crew called up KAS Eupen of Belgium top marksman, Henry Onyekuru, late on Thursday.
Kayode told Sports Village Square that he had already given the Super Eagles’ coaches his words regarding his availability for the friendlies after discussion with his club’s management but recent developments in the league which now sees Austria Wien sit in second place with 60 points, twelve behind table toppers Salzburg FC, and just three points ahead of third placed Sturm Graz, explains why it has become very important for him to help the club in their last few games of the season.
This Saturday, Wien will visit Wolfsberger AC while on Thursday they will host league champions, Salzburg in Vienna. Victory in both games will all but guarantee automatic qualification for the UEFA champions league, a competition that means so much to the Vienna based club.
After that match, Austria Wien will visit Admira FC in their very last match of the season on Sunday May 28. The result of the Admira game will be inconsequential so long as they win the games with Wolfsberger AC and Salzburg.
Kayode who has already scored 16 league goals and have eight assists to his name this season, holds the ace to Austria Wien’s champions’ league ambition.
No wonder the club pleaded that the former Maccabi Natanya FC of Israel striker be allowed to play at least, their last two matches of the season before he is released to honour Super Eagles’ assignments.
“I was not dropped he told Sports Village Square in a telephone conversation on Thursday night after his name was conspicuously missing from the delegation that will travel to the little French region of Corsica before returning to Paris for the match with Togo.
“I spoke with Tunde Adelakun a close confidant to the coach who told me to join up with the team when I am through with club commitments.
“My club needs me to score the goals that will guarantee UEFA Champions League qualification and they are saying the friendly games are not on a FIFA free window so I cannot compel them to release me.
“I really want to wear the Super Eagles jersey again after my London experience and am confident, based on assurances from Tunde Adelakun that my name will be on the list that will tackle South Africa on June 10.
“I will like to use this medium to thank the national team handlers for believing in me and for counting me worthy. I promise that if given another chance, I will deliver the goals.
“My dream is to help Nigeria qualify for the World Cup in Russia and the Nations cup in Cameroon. Am very confident both objectives are achievable that’s is why I want to give it my all he concluded”
Kayode is currently joint top scorer of the Austrian Bundesliga on 16 league goals from 33 matches with Deni Alar of Sturm Graz and he is on track to be voted the most valuable player of the club at the season ending gala night event
A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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Nigeria’s Super Eagles were held to a 2-2 draw by FIFA World Cup-bound Jordan in an eventful international friendly in Antalya on Tuesday night, with the contest overshadowed by a late red card to Alex Iwobi.
Iwobi, making his 98th appearance for the national team, was sent off in the closing stages, capping a dramatic encounter in which Nigeria surrendered a first-half lead and finished the game with ten men.
The match, played at the Mardan Sports Complex, brought Nigeria’s March international window to a close, but it proved anything but routine as both sides delivered a fiercely contested and entertaining clash.
Jordan, ranked 64th in the world and enjoying strong recent form, struck first in the 17th minute through Mousa Tamari. A well-worked free-kick routine caught the Nigerian defence napping, allowing the forward to fire home the opener.
Nigeria responded quickly and thought they had equalised six minutes later when Raphael Onyedika finished from a Moses Simon cut-back, but the goal was controversially ruled out.
The Super Eagles eventually drew level in the 30th minute. Stand-in captain Moses Simon, earning his 97th cap, reacted fastest after Ademola Lookman’s effort was blocked, slotting home with a composed left-footed finish for his second goal in as many matches.
Nigeria went ahead four minutes before halftime when Bright Osayi-Samuel’s pinpoint cross found debutant Emmanuel Fernandez, who showed great composure to control and finish, giving the three-time African champions a 2-1 lead at the interval.
The second half took on a more physical tone, with goalkeeper Francis Uzoho forced off in the 57th minute after sustaining an injury while clearing the ball. Adebayo Adeleye replaced him between the posts.
Head coach Eric Chelle introduced Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi to shore up the midfield, but Jordan continued to press and were rewarded with an equaliser in the 77th minute.
Nigeria pushed for a winner late on, handing a senior debut to Philip Otele, while Samuel Chukwueze came on for Moses Simon. However, the closing moments were marred by Iwobi’s dismissal, leaving the Super Eagles to see out the match with ten men.
Despite the draw, the encounter offered valuable insights for the coaching crew as Nigeria continues preparations for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
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